Pediatric emergency care
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Pediatric emergency care · Mar 2022
Recommendations on the Management of Interhospital Transport of Pediatric Patients With Mediastinal Mass.
Children with mediastinal masses often present with insidious symptoms to nonspecialist centers and require interhospital transport to oncology centers for definitive care. We evaluated clinical characteristics and patient outcomes and proposed a management protocol. ⋯ Children with mediastinal mass are at risk of life-threatening cardiorespiratory compromise. Pretransport assessment, planning, and stabilization along with clear management plans for deterioration during transport are crucial especially for patients who are symptomatic at time of presentation, to reduce risks associated with delays in arriving at the specialist point of care for definitive treatment.
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Pediatric emergency care · Mar 2022
California Children Presenting to an Emergency Department for Mental Health Emergencies: Trajectories of Care.
Pediatric emergency department (ED) mental health visits are increasing in the United States. At the same time, child/adolescent psychiatric services are limited. This study examines the trajectory of pediatric patients presenting with mental health emergencies to better understand availability of specialty care resources in regional networks. ⋯ Pediatric patients with mental health emergencies experience different trajectories of care. Transfer protocols and regionalized networks may help streamline services and decrease inefficiencies in care.
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Pediatric emergency care · Mar 2022
Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship Education on Adolescent Sexual Health Care.
Many adolescents use the emergency department as their sole resource for primary care and sexual health care. This provides an opportunity to prevent sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy as well as to educate teenagers about their bodies and sexual health. There is no standard curriculum on sexual health as part of pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellowship education. Our goal is to evaluate what is taught in PEM fellowship about adolescent sexual health. ⋯ We found variability in adolescent sexual health training during PEM fellowship, although fellows and PDs agree that there should be a standardized curriculum. We recommend that the American Board of Pediatrics form a committee to decrease variability in the training of PEM fellows on adolescent sexual health.
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Pediatric emergency care · Mar 2022
Responding to a Behavioral Health Crisis: Applying a New Care Model in the Emergency Department.
Emergency department (ED) visits for behavioral health (BH) emergencies continue to rise, and institutions across the country encounter barriers and struggle to put BH processes in place to address their needs. After learning of an unanticipated closure of a local psychiatric crisis response center (CRC), our ED implemented quality improvement interventions to respond to an acute surge of BH patients. ⋯ A multifaceted approach allowed our ED to successfully respond to an unexpected surge of BH patients. Other institutions may be able to apply a population health and quality improvement approach when addressing the rising prevalence of ED BH visits. Future studies and practices should explore the optimal role of the acute care setting in the continuum of care of these patients.
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Pediatric emergency care · Mar 2022
Resources for Improving Pediatric Readiness and Quality of Care in Rural Communities and Emergency Departments.
To share the process and products of an 8-year, federally funded grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration Emergency Medical Services for Children program to increase pediatric emergency readiness and quality of care provided in rural communities located within 2 underserved local emergency medical services agencies (LEMSAs) in Northern California. ⋯ The resources we provided from our regional, urban children's hospital to 2 rural LEMSAs facilitated improvements in a regionalized system of care for critically ill and injured children. Our shared resources framework can be adapted by other regional children's hospitals to increase readiness and quality of pediatric emergency care in rural and underserved communities and LEMSAs.